Splorin’: it’s what we do…the unknown always comes with adventure and excitement.
We are getting to the point where we are fine tuning our adventures (or at least working out the kinks). This week Mike decided what supper club we were hitting up for #supperclubsaturday before we decided anything else. So, he picked an awesome place — The Ranch in Hayward, WI (which was truely lovely — see below), but it had the distinct disadvantage of not being anywhere, even remotely close, to a Wisconsin State Park. (we have decided that, for the next year or so, our Splorin’ Saturday hikes will be at Wisconsin State Parks unless excluded by circumstance or location.)
Back to the “bad decision” which became quite serendipitous. Not being able to find a WI State Park anywhere near Hayward, we ended up going to Brunet Island State Park in Cornell, WI — this was a good hour and a half from Hayward. So, Mike had to find something to breakup that drive between hiking and supperclubbing. He suggested the Red Schoolhouse Winery in Stone Lake, WI with a short hike following at Stone Lake Community Wetland Park. However, Tammy quickly nixed this when she saw the winery was hosting a “Kentucky Derby Party” that afternoon. She wanted nothing to do with that. So she Googled and found Clover Meadow Winery outside of Shell Lake, WI which called itself a “Winery in the middle of nowhere” — cool, that sounds like something right up our alley. Since it wasn’t exactly close to Mike’s desired travel route, we decided to play it by ear — if we had time we would stop, if we didn’t no big deal. Thankfully we ended up with time (dramatic foreshadowing music playing the background).
We started the day having breakfast at KJ’s Cafe in Cornell, WI. If you’ve never been there, go!! If you have been there, you know what we mean when we say it is one of the cutest little places for breakfast around. Maybe 10 tables and quite quiet on a early May Saturday morning. Food and service were awesome. Like most places, they never batted an eyelash at our request for side salads instead of hash browns. Coffee was a little bit above what we would call “airport coffee” (we’ll explain that at some boring point in time in the future) and the omelet Tammy had was so big she couldn’t finish it! As usual, and expected by this the 4th installment of our ‘splorin’ , there was quite the gathering of locals in this place. We delighted in our second favorite thing to do on Splorin’ Saturdays while at a restaurant — eavesdropping (of course the first is eating and enjoying our own company). We listened to the locals talk about life around town — and two elderly people talking about the Splorin’ they do on their motorcycle (which actually turned out to be a Can-Am 3 wheeled motorcycle).
Next up was Brunet Island State Park a whole 5 minutes from KJ’s. We got our daily pass and were off on a trail within 5 minutes. When we asked about the trail conditions this week the ranger said “a bit soft in spots, but mostly in really good shape”. This time we were not lied to — they were exactly in that shape.
Another lesson learned for Splorin’ Saturday — we needed hiking boots. Tennis shoes and wet trails do not mix (well, maybe when the tennis shoe is at the bottom of a mud hole that your foot just came out of). The friday before we purchased new hiking shoes/boots.
Mike said “don’t get the half boot ones, they don’t offer any additional ankle support than just hiking shoes”. So of course Tammy got regular hiking shoes and Mike got the half boot kind. ;-). There was some mud here and there, but unlike Interstate State Park there was no water running down the trails in little rivers, or small ponds of water that needed to be traversed over or around.
The hike on the Nordic Trail was a nice and easy walk through the woods. A big wide trail with lots of arrows pointing the way – although there was a little confusion over what was walking trail and what was cross country skiing trail. We saw some squirrels, chipmunks, ducks and deer. The deer obviously saw us long before we saw them because they had their tails up and were moving quite fast when we saw them through the trees. Shortly after beginning the trail, Tammy realized another refinement we had to make — we need at least 30 minutes between breakfast and hiking (man, these rules are going to overwhelm Splorin’ Saturday’s spontaneity) But we survived the 3 mile hike.
We then proceeded the to island part of Brunet Island State Park. Since Tammy is a mother of four, we had to do what every mother of four has to do — search for a bathroom for her to pee. The regular “flush toilets” that were listed on the map were locked up tight so we had to go in search of the pit toilets. We then started on the Pine Trail which would take us about a mile up the island. It was a nice easy walk again, although this time it was a little bit more difficult to identify what was trail and what was just woods. But we found our way through. While on the trail we saw four deer hanging out trying to stand as still as possible so we would walk right past them. Unfortunately for them, one got caught in the middle of the field and was easy to spot (I’m sure the mom admonished him/her about that after we left). The trail then moved on to the Fisher River. It was a beautiful walk in the woods with water on the one side. We saw a couple of (very loud) people fishing from kayaks. We then finished up by hiking the trail that went past the boat ramp and eventually took us back to our car. All in all, a good 5 mile hike at the park. The trails were easy walking, beautiful scenery and of course, as always, good company.
We finished at the park a good hour ahead of Mike’s schedule — so that meant the “Winery in the middle of nowhere” was a go!! Google maps directions were loaded in Android Auto and we were off like a prom a dress to Clover Meadow Winery. The “middle of nowhere” describes this place pretty well. After driving backroads and going through Shell Lake, WI Mike expected to see a sign for this place – but we did not see anything until right at the end of their driveway (you guessed it — in the middle of nowhere). Driving up the gravel driveway you get the feeling you are leaving the present day and traveling back in to a simpler place in time. We came to a pasture along the way that was filled with horses — tons of them behind a small wire fence. We then came upon several horses on the other side of the road that had no silly fence restrictions and they were just munching on grass along the driveway. We then got to the end of the driveway and Mike was already thinking this might be a mistake — he decided (at least in his head) if we were the only ones there, we might just turn around and leave. But there was another car in the parking lot and we saw someone walking into the building as we were pulling up. OK, good-to-go. There were small tables spread out around the grassy area with plastic chairs by them. Looked like a very nice quiet place to sit and enjoy some wine. We also saw a disc golf basket out beyond the tables. We then proceeded to walk into the building.
We were greeted by a quiet, quaint seating area that had an indoor open firepit with a small fire going and a stage for live music. We saw no one, but did see a screen door — that was the only place we could go. We walk through the screen door into a small store-like atmosphere and discovered what you would expect to see at a winery gift shop – glasses, bottle holders, bottles of wine, cordials, brandy and moonshine. What? Moonshine? Yep. Forgot to mention this fun fact – in addition to the “Winery in the middle of nowhere”, this place is also “White Wolf Distillery” and they make moonshine. I guess they do not have to say “Distillery in the middle of nowhere” as that is already implied with it being part of the winery. We saw the person we noticed outside again — it was apparent then that he wasn’t a customer, but he didn’t really say anything to us. We looked around a little bit and were kind of surprised when we heard a very deep voice behind us say “Welcome, have you guys ever been here before?” We turned to find the owner with a cup of coffee in his hand. He had long gray hair with a mustache to match. When we responded with “No”, he lauched into a seemingly 15 minute description of the winery and distillery. A fully organic winery — they grow their own fruit and grapes on the premises. Very cool. BUT, they are a also horse rescue with some 70 horses, a dog rescue with 30 dogs, have a disc golf course, and are building a campground (along the long driveway in). And the walls were filled with paintings done by the owner. We were then given a listing of all their tasting offerings and told we could select up to 8 things. According to the owner they can induce the “first level of surgical anesthesia” if you have too much so we could “split” a tasting if we wanted to. Ummm, nope. We tried a variety of things. Mike even tried the Blackberry Brandy (another long story for when stories get short in the future) and he was not that impressed. The wines were interesting. Too often in Wisconsin all you get are sweet wines — neither of us like those at all – so we stick to drier wines. They had a category of wines that were “Not too sweet/Not too dry” — that was the best we could do. Tammy actually really enjoyed a drier rhubarb wine and a bottle made it’s way home to Eau Claire. We were in love with the place and the owner. He never stopped talking. He told stories – and had a million of them (and probably another couple million in reserve). We heard all about his upbringing and his mom who served as a nurse in Anzio in World War II and his Uncle who was a cop on the difficult streets of Chicago. We learned that his mom “made boot camp easy” compared to his home life and that he served three tours of duty in the marines before moving on to the Navy and retiring in the late 80’s. It was an awesome afternoon. We learned that he is a caregiver in almost every sense of the word. He cares for his son, the horses, the dogs, the neighbors kids/grandkids and the land that they farm. We didn’t get to meet his wife or daughter (“administration” as I believe he called them), but it sounds like they are all wonderful people. Maybe we can meet them next time? After having talked, eaten a very generous meat and cheese tray, had our 8 tastings plus an additional glass of wine each — it was time for us to be on our way. About that time a new group of 8 people showed up and it was time for us to relinquish our chairs and ears to the new group to be enthralled with stories by the owner. We left, both thinking it is just a matter of time when, not if, we go back.
Even after that all-afternoon palaver, we still had a little time before dinner. We headed toward Stone Lake and thought we could still hit up the Stone Lake Wetland Park. While on our way there, we passed the Red Schoolhouse Winery and saw all the women there with their big flowery hats on, most likely sipping mint juleps. Both of us thought — man, we had much, MUCH, more fun at the “Winery in the middle of nowhere”. The wetlands park was small, but neat. There was a couple of trails through the woods and above an impressive set of train tracks; the most compelling feature was the boardwalk through the actual wetland. Definitely a National Lampoon’s Vacation “Grand Canyon moment”, but still fun.
We then drove on to Hayward and still had about 30 minutes before dinner so we stopped at Shue Pond Park for a little walk and a chance to sit by the pond and reflect on the day so far (ok, mostly to talk about how much we loved the “Winery in the middle of nowhere”).
Supper Club Saturday was at The Ranch in Hayward, WI. In our “old age” we are finding we like to do Supper Club Saturday early — like at 5PM — so we can make the drive back home before it gets dark (and all the deer come out to play hopscotch on the highways). We pulled into the parking lot and there was only one car there — wow. Did we pick the wrong place to eat? Or were we just early? Turns out we were just early. We got a very nice table overlooking the backyard. The relish tray was served and it was top notch – we even tried the herring. Tam was a fan, Mike – not so much.
We typically have a bottle of wine with dinner. The waitress told us about a new wine they had, but had to get the owner to describe it to us because “she knew wine”. It was a red blend called Metal Bender, a Wisconsin winemaker who added a small winery out in Sonoma, CA to have more access to their grapes. She offered as a small taste and it was very good. She then filled our glasses and started walking away with the bottle. The look on Tammy’s face was like someone was stealing her dog — the waitress noticed and made sure the remainder of that bottle made it’s way back to our table! Tammy was excited to see that they had Brussel sprouts as an appetizer. They were good, but not New Jersey good (another story for another day). Mike had the Prime Rib (boring, we know, but very good). Tammy had whatever she had. All in all it was a very good Supper Club!! We walked out to the parking lot and it was overflowing with cars — so much so that people were now parked on the side of the driveway. OK — we were definitely just early. 😉
We then had our nice 2 hour drive back home and then Mike made a fire in the backyard while we enjoyed a little more wine. It was just a little too windy for the fire and Mike was worried about burning the neighborhood down, so we put the fire out and went to bed with dreams of the “Winery in the middle of nowhere” dancing in our heads…
Splorin' Saturday 